


Of Mothers and Green Suns

by PandoraTheExplorer



Series: Month of Drabbles Challenge 2018 [15]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, dave is a good brother, if you read this as d/rsecest i will break into your house and throw your toothbrush in your toilet, set during the meteor trip, this is very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 19:16:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16069568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoraTheExplorer/pseuds/PandoraTheExplorer
Summary: Rose and Dave have a much needed conversation.  (Prompt by @mandaree1)





	Of Mothers and Green Suns

**Author's Note:**

> Day 19 of my 2018 Month of Drabbles Challenge.

Rose’s shrill scream cut through the musky air of what was now Dave’s room. He bolted to Rose’s room next door and kicked open the door, drawing one of his swords.

Rose had stopped screaming, and was curled in a tangle of blankets on her bed. Dave hesitantly placed his sword back into his sylladex. Despite him literally having kicked her door down, Rose didn’t seem to notice him standing there. Dave became aware of Rose’s quick, light breaths and the occasional sob she let out. Dave had only met Rose in real life for about a week, but he had a feeling that this wasn’t normal.

“Rose?” Dave called, “Are you okay?”

Rose’s breathing got faster. “I’m fine,” she replied. So she had definitely been crying, then.

Kanaya’s head peeked in. “Is Everyone Alright?” she asked, “We Heard Screaming From Down The Hall.”

Rose sat up in her bed. “I-I’m fine,” she repeated softly, “I just saw a spider, that’s all.”

Kanaya turned to Dave, who shook his head and made a shooing gesture. The troll nodded and left after wishing him and Rose a “Good Day.” Dave walked to Rose’s bed and put a hand on her shoulder.

“What happened?” he asked.

“It’s nothing,” Rose grumbled. The bed sheets ruffled softly and Dave realized that she was wiping her face with her blanket.

“You’re crying,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, no shit,” she snapped.

“Come on, Rose,” Dave said, “You’re always trying to pry into my personal life. It’s my turn to psychoanalyze you and figure out what family member you want to fuck.”

Rose was silent save her sniffling. Dave wasn’t sure how long he sat there-five minutes? An hour?

“Look,” he said, getting up from the bed, “if you don’t want to talk to me about it that’s fine. But I just want to make sure you’re okay and-“

Rose grabbed his arm and pulled him back to the bed. “I had a nightmare,” she said.

Dave stared at Rose for a few moments. That was the reason she was screaming bloody murder? A few bad dreams? He had nightmares too-they’ve gotten worse since he arrived on this meteor. But he would never make as much of a fuss about it as Rose was. To do that was to show weakness, and Bro would never allow him to show weakness.

Dave took in the way Rose was shivering underneath all he blankets. Then again, not everyone had been trained by Bro.

He stroked Rose’s hair, damp from sweat and tears. “It’s okay,” he said, “I get them too.”

Two purple eyes met his red ones. “What do you dream about?” Rose asked.

“Mostly weird shit from the game,” Dave replied, “Memories from other timelines, Jade shooting me to death, stuff like that.” He had dreams about Bro, too, and the glint of his shades shining into Dave’s eyes, blinding him before he got shoved down a flight of stairs or stabbed for the umpteenth time with a shitty katana. Rose didn’t need to know about those dreams.

Rose nodded. “I always dream about Jack running me through with his sword,” she said, “Bleeding to death feels awful. He stabbed me in the stomach, did you know that?”

“Ouch,” Dave said, swinging his legs onto Rose’s bed and leaning his head on the wall, cushioning it with a pillow. “At least Jade killed me almost immediately when she shot me.”

“And I was in Grimdark mode, too,” Rose mumbled, scooting closer to Dave, “I think that made it hurt even more.”

“Can I have one of your blankets?” Dave asked, lying down, “It’s cold as shit.” Technically, his god tier clothes were pyjamas, but he changed out of them when he went to bed because they were too hot. If he was going to spend the next hour or three here in his tank top and boxers, he might as well get comfy.

Rose took her own blankets and covered Dave with them. “Tonight I was dreaming of my mom,” she said quietly, “She died again. She always dies before I get to say goodbye.”

“Oh,” Dave said. His dreams about Bro were never about his death.

“It’s just that…I used to think my mom was always out to get me. I thought she was trying to prove some kind of point by always being the ‘better person’ and whatever.” Her voice cracked. “But now that I think about it maybe she was just trying to be supportive. She wasn’t going about it the right way but she cared about me.” Rose curled up against Dave’s chest. “She died before I told her I loved her.”

Dave hesitantly put his arm around Rose’s shoulder. This was the first time he’s hugged someone in a long time. Bro used to hug him when he helped him make smuppet porn videos, but that probably didn’t count. Rose wasn’t hugging him in front of a camera for show. They were just hugging because it felt nice to hug your friend.

It wasn’t like he and Rose hadn’t talked about heavy stuff before. Back on Earth, they’d talked about life and death and love and birth and everything in between. But it was strange to be here, and to have Rose Lalonde pry open all her vulnerabilities to him while peeking at some of his own. Dave knew that in a few hours when the rest of the crew wakes up, the two of them would carry on with whatever counted as normal life on this meteor and never mention this night again. But even if they never speak of what happened again, Rose was hurting right now. Dave needed to say something right now to make her stop hurting. What could he possibly say?

“She sounds interesting,” Dave said, “I would have liked to meet her.”

Rose gave a half-hearted scoff. “You two might get along,” she said, squeezing Dave’s chest, “You’d probably appreciate her ironic wizard statues.”

The two were silent while a wet patch grew on Dave’s tank top. He didn’t know much about Rose’s mom-his mom-other than what little she told him. Maybe Rose would have gotten along with Bro, too-at least more than he did. Rose was built for psychological warfare. Dave wasn’t.

“You know what else I always dream about?” Dave says. He was awake at this time for a reason. “I always dream about the Green Sun.”

Rose winced. “That was the most painful death I’ve ever had.” She shook her arm and Dave lifted his head to make room for it. “I can still feel the fire.”

“That was the worst decision of our lives,” Dave grunted, “Trying to blow up the Green Sun? We didn’t even blow it up. We ended up creating it. Fuck god tiering. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have gone.”

“You didn’t have to go with me,” Rose said, “I told you to go find John and Jade.”

“We’ve been over this, Rose,” Dave said, “John and Jade had each other, but you were by yourself. I couldn’t let you die alone.”

“Don’t you understand what I was trying to do?” Rose said, “I wanted to save as many people as I could. Only one death was necessary for the mission. Why did you make it two?”

“Same goes for you, Lalonde.” Dave felt Rose’s arms tense around his chest. “You could have just let me do the mission instead of you. Why did you have to knock me out and go in my place?” Rose opened her mouth to speak but Dave cut her off. “Don’t give me the whole ‘the Horrorterrors chose me’ bullshit,” he said, “Either of us could have done it.”

Rose sighed. “My mother was dead,” she said, “The world just ended and everything I knew was gone. The damn game took everything I loved from me. Is it so ridiculous to think that I would want to go out while giving the game a middle finger?”

“That’s some philosophical bullshit right there,” Dave said.

“You know I’m always full of philosophical bullshit,” Rose replied.

“You didn’t lose everything, you know,” Dave said, “You still had us. You had me and John and Jade.”

Dave felt Rose shrug under his arm. “I guess I was also trying to save all of you, too, by making sure Lord English was never born. Weren’t you trying to do the same thing?”

“I guess. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I let you or John or Jade die for my sake.”

Rose snorted. “Look how well that turned out.” she said, curling up against him, “I’m pretty sure all of us have died at least once by now, Dave,”

“Yeah?” Dave rested his chin on Rose’s hair. “So much for the whole ‘kill Lord English’ thing, too.”

Rose yawned. “For now,” she said, “Let’s just promise not to pull any more of these double suicide missions.”

“I won’t if you don’t,” Dave said, “But if you do, you know I got your back, sis.” Bro probably would have frowned at this blatant show of affection to another human being, but Dave decided that Bro was too dead to care.

“Oh yeah,” Rose murmured tiredly, “I guess we’re related now, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” Dave said, “You’re my little sister, born from a mix of the same baby slime as me.”

“I’m only a day younger than you, Dave.”

Dave smirked. “And don’t you forget it.”

Rose leaned into the crook of Dave’s neck. “Fucking hell,” she muttered.

Dave waited for her to say something more. When Rose’s breathing slowed he realized that she was asleep. He considered heading to his own room, but decided against it. When he fell asleep again the nightmares were just going to come back. He held Rose tighter.

It was nice to have someone who understood.

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted to write some Strilonde sibling fluff tbh.


End file.
